Just before the start of the 21st Century following the hangover of Britpop, LADYTRON formed in Liverpool and brought the-then unfashionable sound of synthesizers into their own DIY indie punk sound.
Since their debut long player ‘604’ in 2001 up to their most recent album ‘Time’s Arrow’ in 2023, their sound has evolved. LADYTRON have embraced synthpop, electroclash, electronic shoegaze and industrial goth. Now reconfigured as a trio, Helen Marnie, Daniel Hunt and Mira Arroyo explore more explicitly dance-based templates on their eighth album ‘Paradises’.
While LADYTRON were once labelled electroclash with ‘Seventeen’ being considered an anthem within that scene, they have never been club-oriented as such despite their origins in the DJ sphere. But Daniel Hunt has described ‘Paradises’ as “a ‘disco’ record” but this being LADYTRON, their take on ‘disco’ is wide ranging. About the making of the album, Hunt said “The key motivation was fun” while Mira Aroyo expressed a desire to “channel that fun feeling of first working together back in the late ’90s when we had nothing to lose.”
Photo by Mark McNulty
Realised over 5 months with work starting in late 2023 and again mixed by long-time collaborator Jim Abbiss, ‘Paradises’ is a fully international record that befits the multi-cultural foundations of LADYTRON, with recording taking place in Liverpool, São Paulo, Montrose and London.
The first hypnotic single ‘I Believe in You’ was a statement of intent. With the trio themselves describing it as “high-priestess disco” and shaped by an infectious house groove previously not heard from LADYTRON, it is still undoubtedly recognisable as them so makes a perfect opener to signal this dancier direction.
‘A Death In London’ strengthens this resolve and falls under the influence of A GUY CALLED GERALD but with the final outcome being more song-based; and if that wasn’t enough of a surprise, there are even oceanic sax breaks in a ‘Pacific’ fashion which provide an altered state of 808. While it appears seemingly escapist, the line “a place where dreams go to die…” provides that darker LADYTRON twist in its Balearic noir.
With an octave-drive, ‘I See Red’ clatters out of that Manchester clubbing-era with a hallucinatory mindset while ‘Caught In The Blink Of An Eye’ provides some subtle techpop with a not an entirely different aesthetic.
The red theme is reflected again on ‘In Blood’ to show that ‘Paradises’ is not just dance songs, with ‘Secret Dreams of Thieves’ sung by Mira Arroyo, the feminine PET SHOP BOYS of ‘Sing’ and the lush ‘Ordinary Love’ all exuding the more atmospheric approaches heard on 2011’s ‘Gravity The Seducer’.
Meanwhile, ‘Kingdom Undersea’ not only brings in a steady Balearic house piano riff and a ghostly Fairlight choir but the voice of Daniel Hunt alongside Helen Marnie in his first vocal turn since ‘Versus’ from 2008’s ‘Velocifero’. There’s a return to the influences of A GUY CALLED GERALD but in a more sedate manner on ‘Free, Free’ while the percussive ‘Metaphysica’ adds some subtle gothic drama. ‘We Wrote Our Names in the Dust’ utilises club rhythms but the sonic romance is almost ambient.
Into the home straight, ‘Solid Light’ moves away from clubland for a more straightforward slice of classic girl group pop with Mira Aroya returning to take lead and declaring “we will dance again”, while to close, ‘For A Life In London’ falls under the spell of THE BELOVED for LADYTRON’s own ‘Sweet Harmony’ complete with sax, albeit as a united spoken word declaration in the face of divisive far right politics.
Like the new MESH long player ‘The Truth Doesn’t Matter’, there is a lot of new LADYTRON to consume across the 16 tracks on ‘Paradises’. Yes it’s a less aggressive LADYTRON than in the past, but this is a new LADYTRON with a spellbinding dance-inflected direction that suits them who are also equally worthy of a listen.
‘Paradises’ is released by Nettwerk in the usual formats including CD and double vinyl LP on 20th March 2026
LADYTRON 2026 UK live dates include:
Liverpool Arts Club Theatre (19th March), Newcastle Digital (20th March), Manchester Gorilla (21st March), Halifax Piece Hall (31st July – with Gary Numan), London Crystal Palace (6th August – with Gary Numan + Marc Almond)
50 years from KRAFTWERK appearing on the BBC’s ‘Tomorrow’s World’ to perform ‘Autobahn’ and demonstrate the future of music, as Ralf Hütter remarked at the start of the 21st Century, “electro is everywhere” and can now be made on your mobile phone!
And while the KRAFTWERK brand continues to be fronted by the 79 year old Hütter with an extensive UK tour pencilled in next year, 2025 saw the sad passing of Synth Britannia heroes Dave Ball and Stephen Luscombe, while there was also the loss of COVENANT associate Andreas Catjar-Danielsson, NITZER EBB frontman Douglas J McCarthy and Gary Numan’s brother / former live band member John Webb. Outside of the genre, cult film director David Lynch, BLONDIE drummer Clem Burke, veteran diva Marianne Faithfull, The Prince Of Darkness Ozzy Osbourne and Head Beach Boy Brian Wilson were among those who left this mortal coil.
Among the new talent making a good impression were Spike, Shears and Hannah Hu who is currently working on her first album with Dean Honer of I MONSTER. Having already released a couple of albums, on the ascendancy was self-styled Californian “retro electro artist”Sophie Grey who was joined by Trevor Horn during her live cover of ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ while supporting Sting at the London Forum.
On the gentler side of electronics, Patricia Wolf and Loula Yorke came up with their fabulous respective instrumental offerings ‘Hrafnamynd’ and ‘Time Is A Succession Of Such Shapes’. There was also the return of LADYTRON as well as Alison Goldfrapp, Claudia Brücken and Kim Wilde. Going back to glitzy electropop on her new record ‘Mayhem’, Lady Gaga did an impression of Taylor Swift doing YAZOO on one of its highlights ‘How Bad Do U Want Me?’; meanwhile Taylor herself appeared to have turned into Los Angeles trio CANNONS on ‘The Fate Of Ophelia’, the synthy opening song of her 12th album ‘The Life Of A Showgirl’.
Photo by Oliver Blair
Swedish producer Johan Agebjörn proved to have one of the most prolific years in his music career with not only collaborations with R.MISSING on ‘Fakesnow’ and NINA on ‘Hush Hush Baby’ but also a new SALLY SHAPIRO album ‘Ready To Live A Lie’ and a solo long player ‘Southern Forest’; all this while holding down his day job as a psychotherapist! Another releasing two albums in 2025 was Paul Statham although one was a collection of archive recordings for what could have been the intended 1982 debut album by B-MOVIE entitled ‘Lost Treasures’; the other was a second record from his dark country project THE DARK FLOWERS featuring Jim Kerr of SIMPLE MINDS whose most recent single ‘Your Name In Lights’ had been co-written by Statham.
Impressively, SPARKS got ‘MAD!’ and then ‘MADDER!’ while undertaking a huge world tour with Ron Mael still tap dancing at 80 years of age during the drum solo of ‘No1 Song In Heaven’ and Russell Mael able to hit many of those high notes at 77. As ERASURE made a tentative return with a series of special UK fan club shows to celebrate their 40th anniversary, Andy Bell toured his solo album ‘Ten Crowns’ with KNIGHT$ not doing himself any harm being the opening act on the German leg ahead of a new album ‘Supernatural Lover’ out in early 2026.
After a few years of recorded absence, former TANGERINE DREAM members released long awaited albums with Peter Baumann from the classic line-up issuing the esoteric ‘Nightfall’ while Jerome Froese, son of co-founder Edgar, came up with the guitartronica of ‘Sunsets In Stereo’. Playing with the atonal atmospheres of early TANGERINE DREAM in places, the dark cerebral concept of ‘The Ray Bradbury Chronicles’ by Levente was worthy of investigation.
With their keyboard player Christian Berg now something of a modern day Rick Wakeman, KITE established themselves as a major world force with a spectacular show on ice at Stockholm’s Avicii Arena which saw special guest Nina Persson of THE CARDIGANS skating with the Helsinki Rockettes while singing their mighty collaboration ‘Heartless Places’.
Tom Shear released one of his most impressive and on-point albums as ASSEMBLAGE 23 in ‘Null’ while UNIFY SEPARATE didn’t mince their words on their ‘Heavy Meta’ EP. While Tobias Bernstrup kept the dark Italo flame alive with ‘Shadow Dancer’, Berlin continued to remain a force in underground club culture with two of its leading exponents Franz Scala and Kalipo presenting well-received long players that worked on the home hi-fi as well as on dancefloors. On the more poptronica front, Eddie Bengtsson finally stopped trying to “Numanise” his sound and came up with ‘Inget Motstånd’, a record in the more classic PAGE vein.
While synthwave appeared to be dead (as the controversial blog Iron Skullet declared in 2019), the influx of generic darkwave was a major blight on electronic music in 2025. The major label supported Mareux and his second album ‘Nonstop Romance’ had any potential painfully ruined by overused deliberate distortion to make it sound like it was recorded down a drainpipe.
Meanwhile PORCELAIN DANCER seemed to be the Rob Newman parody of Robert Smith as seen on ‘The Mary Whitehouse Experience’ resurrected only several octaves lower; his live performance provoked unintentional laughter from those who arrived early to see KORINE in London!
DEPECHE MODE released 4 songs that were originally deemed not good enough to put on their 2023 album ‘Memento Bori’ to append the live album accompanying their Mexico City concert film ‘M’. But 2025 was notable for a number of figures in the British DM fan community who were coming out with particularly repugnant far right views, seemingly oblivious to the decades of lyrical messages from the two remaining mixed race band members!
But there was hope in the darker side of synth with A THOUSAND MAD THINGS; with his haunted demeanour while navigating young manhood as a tortured outsider, William Barradale’s doomed romantic delivery reminiscent of Billy MacKenzie and Trevor Herion made him undoubtedly the most promising UK act since MIRRORS; his debut 5 song EP ‘Cry & Dance’ was one of 2025’s best bodies of work. This more than made up for ‘Dance Called Memory’, the extremely dull fourth album from NATION OF LANGUAGE which was anything but memorable…
After looking back at 1981, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK were pleased to be return to the variously compiled podcast ‘Back To NOW’ to discuss the ‘NOW 1982 Yearbook’ with genial host Iain McDermott and Ian Wade, author of ‘1984: The Year Pop Went Queer’. While general music and culture podcasts such as ‘Back To NOW’, ‘Word In Your Ear’, ‘The Rest Is Entertainment’, ‘The Rockonteurs’, ‘SoundPower’ and Miranda Sawyer’s new offering ‘Talk 90s To Me’ were highly engaging listens, specific broadcasts focussed on synth and electronic music were usually weak, suffering from poor hosting and ham-fisted background research. But when a professional presenter was involved, synth-oriented chats could be enlightening as the appearance of John Foxx on ‘The Adam Buxton Podcast’ proved, despite the annoying jingles that accompanied it.
Featuring commentary from PET SHOP BOYS’ Neil Tennant, the BBC’s retrospective look at the collapse of EMI called ‘Music Money & Mayhem’ showed once again that when those who know nothing about music get involved in the music business, it will end in tears. Looking at the story of the history of Beggars Banquet label in its first series and featuring Gary Numan in its opening episode, ‘States Of Independence’ documented how creative enthusiasm from the heart can actually thrive.
So where are the audiences for live electronic music these days? Certainly, if the full houses for Marie Davidson, Geneva Jacuzzi, Loscil and KITE in London’s club-sized venues were anything to go by, the crowds are out there. This was not the case for some other acts on the circuit at new, cult and one-hit wonder level who were struggling to get above half capacity or had downsized considerably since their perceived highest profile. However, new music night Release Me managed to get very good attendances for their evenings in 2025 with the premise that all acts must perform previously unreleased material; this focus on their events being about the music with announced requests to not talk during sets was a fresh and very welcome approach.
Photo by Tom Casey
Elsewhere, the retro business did prosper with reunions, exhibitions, summer hits shows, classic album tours, deluxe reissues of albums that were never that good in the first place and notable records re-released in yet another expanded set for the 5th or 6th time! There were those trying to exploit the fading nostalgia of those heady romantic times, writing memoirs that left out so many important facts omitted that there were grounds for inclusion in the “fiction” section.
Then there were others releasing overlong collections with an average track length of between 6-8 minutes that no-one asked for nor desired… filtering and editing is such an important aspect to producing music so there was no excuse for these veterans! Some even sent out unmastered music files to review outlets, blissfully unaware that the sound quality might actually be mentioned, only to get stupidly angry about it when highlighted due to their own numbskull promotional abilities; it’s a funny old entitled world…
The positive and negative of modern day music consumption is growth CAN happen organically in its own internet powered niche. But with the fragmentation of promotion with social media actually being a choice despite wider protestations, even the AXS newsletter listing the acts soon to be playing the 20,000 capacity O2 arena in London provoked cries of “WHO?”; but that is how it is now and it needs to be accepted. Why should a Boomer or Gen X-er know about the bright young thing headlining Glastonbury?
However, you CAN create your own musical universe today, not listen to radio, create your own playlists and exclude as appropriate. After all, as Nick Rhodes from DURAN DURAN once remarked: “Good taste is exclusive” – nobody should have to like what you like and neither should what somebody else likes appeal to you… niche interests are fine.
There is no doubt fandom has become more tribal and is now akin to away game support for football teams. But as a result, it has therefore got more toxic, with some fans getting ridiculously angry on socials about old less-than-positive reviews that David Hepworth, Mark Ellen, Ian Cranna, Dave Rimmer, Tom Hibbert or Neil Tennant might have written for Smash Hits 43 YEARS AGO!! “Bet he regrets that…” someone will quip smugly but the reality is, if there is a review that a writer will regret, from the experience of ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK, it will usually be the one that is too gushing with praise!
The gist of Smash Hits during its imperial phase that coincided with Neil Tennant’s tenure as Assistant Editor was it was a magazine which treated “pop” as the most “important” thing in the world while simultaneously highlighting how “ridiculous” it was too, with references to “the dumper”, “summer colds” and the “tongue sarnie”… often dismissed as a “teen mag”, a good number of teenagers could see through the up-itself pretentions of the NME so relished the more amusing and knowing “scribblings” of the Smash Hits team!
The wider public forgets that it might likely have the benefit of 4 decades of hindsight as well as weekly if not daily plays of a record in the first few years of its possession. While it has always been associated with “free speech”, “opinion” or “freedom of expression”, one of the problems with social media is the narcissistic self-seeking of validation as part of the main character syndrome that afflicts many in this modern world…
U2 once asked “how long must we sing this song?”; so to end a divisive year where evil men with racist views have been casually normalised, the message outlined in 1981 by a trio of philosophers from South Yorkshire must continue to be repeated loud and clear: WE DON’T NEED THIS FASCIST GROOVE THANG! #FuckFarage #FuckReformUK #FuckTommyRobinson #FuckFlagshaggers #FuckTrump
Sometimes ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK does wonders what century it is living in?
One individual complained on social media that there were far too many women in ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s 30 SONGS OF 2024 earlier this year; well they really are out of luck because this time round, only 8 out of the 30 songs listed are of an entirely male preserve as in 2025, the female side of synth was strong.
As in the past, ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK continues to curate its end of year summary around songs rather than albums as the best representation of an annual period thanks to the long gestation periods of many albums and EPs. Although the last 12 months were plagued with generic darkwave to take the place of the insipid synthwave that was prevalent for a period, there were glimmers of creative hope in electronic pop.
While this year’s list was quite straightforward compile, worthy mentions must be given to NNHMN and SIN COS TAN as well as Zanias and Kalipo who all had tracks that just missed out on inclusion in the final list of 30. Available on the usual online platforms with a restriction of one song per artist moniker and placed in alphabetical order, for better or for worse, these are ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s 30 SONGS OF 2025…
ASSEMBLAGE 23 The Line
With its on-point social commentary, ‘Null’ ranks among Tom Shear’s best albums as ASSEMBLAGE 23. Galloping mightily to ‘The Line’, a blend of dark electronic pop influences provide an album standout full of resigned drama when “it doesn’t matter anyway…”; reflecting on political polarisation affecting friendships, he said “you have to evaluate whether you want to keep these people in your life or do you really need to let them go…”
Available on the ASSEMBLAGE 23 album ‘Null’ via Metropolis Records
Back as AUSTRA, ‘Chin Up Buttercup’ was a cathartic record capturing the aftermath of Katie Stelmanis’ break-up with her long-term partner. Like a discontented ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’, the superb ‘Math Equation’ sees a sad but dancey syncopated dance tune with frank observations of navigating modern dating. “You said I needed my own friends and then you f*cked them” she despaired as elegiac synths mourn the end.
Swedish dark Italo artist Tobias Bernstrup is back with his seventh studio album ‘Shadow Dancer’. According to Bernstrup, it “explores the tension between appearance and reality—how we perform identity, desire, and memory in a world flooded with simulation”. On ‘Under Heavy Strobe Light’, the beats pump harder and the voice is deeper but as the title suggests, this throbbing excursion is made for “creatures of the night” who love the dancefloor.
Available on the TOBIAS BERNSTRUP album ‘Shadow Dancer’ via Nadanna Records
Although CAUSEWAY maintained their cinematic dreamwave sound on the ‘Anywhere’ album, its title track was a key statement that went all Motorik and minimal with the guitar of Dale Hiscock from ENDLESS ATLAS contributing the West Coast meets Düsseldorf flavour. Eschewing the density of most of the tracks on the album, the duo’s Marshall Watson said “To me it feels very ‘out of the box’ for CAUSEWAY but it fits in our universe”.
Available on the CAUSEWAY album ‘Anywhere’ is released by Sprechen Music
‘Night Mirror’ saw Claudia Brücken back working with John Williams who produced her third solo album ‘Where Else…’; with her characteristic ice maiden cool, the brilliant ‘Shadow Dancer’ turned the album on its head with an uptempo electronically driven number with minimal rhythm guitar and piano sparring off the synthetic stabs and metronomic rhythms. Here Claudia’s assuring poetry was supreme in this divine slice of avant pop.
Available on the CLAUDIA BRÜCKEN album ‘Night Mirror’ via Demon Music Group
Through circumstance and by choice, Ulrika Mild is perhaps one of the best kept secrets in Swedish electronic pop. Under her alias of COMPUTE, she says “I’m just a girl standing in front of a machine asking it to go ‘bleep bloop’…” but there was a darker if still melodic presence on her ‘NKI’ EP. Its opening song ‘Närmare’ was a feisty club friendly track that acted as an observation about the world problems that threaten human existence.
Co-written and co-produced with SOULWAX, ‘City Of Clowns’ was the first album from Marie Davidson in over 4 years. More English than French but also more song-based, she had some ‘Fun Times’ on a spiky vibrant number about not having children and challenging the now-prevalent far right view that a woman’s only meaningful role in society is reproducing… why bother with all that when her babies can be her art and her fun?
Available on the MARIE DAVIDSON album ‘City Of Clowns’ via DEEWEE
From out of the shadows to under the strobe lights, DIE SEXUAL are the erotically charged Los Angeles-based duo of Anton Floriano and his wife Ros. DIE SEXUAL’s dark electronic influences examine themes of domination and submission. The cut and thrust of ‘Magic Never Dies’ provided another throbbing banger for the alternative dancefloor to enable responsible misbehaviour and to dance like nobody’s watching.
For the second DINA SUMMER album, there was a natural progression from the previous EP ‘Hide & Seek’, playing on its darker but still club friendly aesthetics. Straddling the worlds of electronic disco and alternative rock, ‘Disco Goth’ heads to the dancefloor as frantic throbbing electronics is accompanied commentary on how to get that look. There is an energetic thrill that comes from the decadent dance and being in the ‘Girls Gang’.
Available on the DINA SUMMER album ‘Girls Gang’ via Iptamenos Discos
Playing with the physics of sound while exploring a variety of introspective themes, exiled Belarusian trio DLINA VOLNY understandably now sound heavier than they ever have before, but have retained their all-important melodic contrasts to counter any possibilities of proceedings becoming too dirgey. Playing on their post-punk sensibilities, the exuberant if still sombre ‘Chant’ imagines Siouxsie gone Motorik…
Available on the DLINA VOLNY album ‘In Between’ via Italians Do It Better
As EMMON, Emma Nylen has evolved since her 2007 indie synthpop debut ‘The Art & The Evil’ into a more rugged EBM inclined direction as captured on the mighty ‘Blood On The Ceiling’, her collaboration with subarctic urban industrial artist MAJESTOLUXE. Suitably dark and complimented by chilling, mass murderer-themed lyrics, its hypnotic sonic carousel was inspired by German electropunk pioneers LIAISONS DANGEREUSES.
The musical vehicle of LA-based New Yorker Florence Bullock, following the release of her debut EP ‘Short Stories’ in 2017, she went on to collaborate with BETAMAXX on ‘Skyhigh’ in 2019 before her most recent EP ‘Glass & Steel’ in 2021. ‘Bury The Sky’ is the first GLITBITER song in quite a few years and imagines a “girl on a mountain” in this delightful slice of fantasy futurism and fascinating rhythms that are fast if not furious.
With the 20th Anniversary of ‘Supernature’, it seemed appropriate after the HI-NRG stomp of her debut ’The Love Invention’ that the new Alison Goldfrapp solo album would recall some of the serene avant pop that characterised that record. Co-produced by Stefan Storm of THE SOUND OF ARROWS, ‘Hey Hi Hello’ was exuberant but bittersweet pop and less full on, written during a period when she became single for the first time in years.
Available on the ALISON GOLDFRAPP album ‘Flux’ via AG Records
A cover of American singer-songwriter Bill Dess, best known as Two Feet, the Italian pairing of Erika Grapes and Eugenio Valente acknowledged that ‘Love Is A Bitch’ in this slo-mo reworking of a modern blues number about how blindfolded love cam lead to a trail of toxic events. Seen through a twisted industrial lens in the wake of a heavy relationship breakup, the sub-bass tension and keyboard motifs exuded a glorious cinematic gothique.
Self-producing for the first time, Mari Kattman decided it was the ‘Year Of The Katt’; what is now on offer is a collection of mostly catchy electronic songs with crossover potential for the dance floor. This was exemplified by this pumping industrial pop anthem where in a protest song against female stereotyping, our heroine rebels against cast being seen as “a difficult person” and a ‘Typical Girl’ to question “who’s gonna love you now…”
Available on the MARI KATTMAN album ‘Year Of The Katt’ via Metropolis Records
Now fully able to explore their position as the world’s leading dark synth duo, Nicklas Stenemo and Christian Berg pushed presentation boundaries during the KITE On Ice spectacular at Stockholm’s Avicii stadium. Featuring Nina Persson of THE CARDIGANS, the rumbling ‘Heartless Places’ utilised sinister vocal pitch shifts to capture a bleakness where a world of “hollow faces” are now “caught between hell and loneliness”.
The ‘Mayhem’ album saw Lady Gaga her return to the glitzy electropop with which she found ‘The Fame’. With its array of classic influences, a Siouxsie interpolation figured on ‘Abracadabra’ while ‘Killah’ crossed DAF with Prince! But on ‘How Bad Do U Want Me?’, the diva born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta used a sample from ‘Only You’ by YAZOO and paid homage to Taylor Swift’s CHVRCHES inspired synthpop tunes!
Available on the LADY GAGA album ‘Mayhem’ via Interscope
With LADYTRON now slimmed down to a trio of Helen Marnie, Daniel Hunt and Mira Aroyo following the departure of co-founder member Reuben Wu, the great new first single from the reconfigured line-up has been described as “high-priestess disco”. ‘I Believe In You’ certainly possesses an infectious house groove previously not heard from LADYTRON while still undoubtedly recognisable as them as they head to dancier climes.
Following up her 2020 long playing debut ‘acts of rebellion’, Colombian artist and producer Ela Minus presented ‘DIA’, an album about becoming. Having been weaned on FUGAZI and played in hardcore punk bands, she gradually drifted towards synthesizers as they allowed her to work alone and more swiftly. The thumping thrill of ‘Onwards’ did battle with drops galore while tuning signals acted as the hooks.
Available on the ELA MINUS album ‘DIA’ via Domino Recordings
After a period of Numanisation across the last three PAGE albums with mixed results, Eddie Bengtsson and Marina Schiptjenko totally dialled down the Numan elements on the ‘Inget Motstånd’ album. The opening lead single ‘Kan Inte Tänka På Allt’ provided a good start, featuring incessant drum machine and an enticing cacophony of electronics to revisit the punkier poptronica ethos of the PAGE of old in its energetic pace.
What a 2025 Dubliner Brian O’Malley has had… not only did two thrillers ‘Nine Bodies In A Mexican Morgue’ and ‘Frauds’, which he directed 3 episode of each, both air on UK terrestrial television, he also returned to his solo electronica adventure PolyDROID with two new recordings; one was a vocoder-laden cover of ‘The Sound Of Silence’ but the other was ‘Six Of One’, an original instrumental inspired by Number Six from ‘The Prisoner’.
With a deep bass and hypnotic loop attached to an Italo disco beat, the ever prolific Swedish producer Johan Agebjörn felt having mixed one of their tracks ‘Verónica Pass’ under the SALLY SHAPIRO banner back in 2022, that ‘Fakesnow’ would suit the vocal approach of the enigmatic New York darklings R. MISSING. The combination was a chilling match made in heaven. “Sharon Shy really turned it into a great song” Agebjörn said, “I’m really happy about it”.
RUTH RADELET, NAT WALKER & ADAM MILLER The Wild Unknown
A three quarters reunion of CHROMATICS saw Ruth Radelet, Nat Walker and Adam Miller record 4 tracks for a teenage adventure game soundtrack that revisited the dreamy synth and guitar sound that characterised songs such as ‘Shadow’ and resonated with the game’s Super 8 aesthetics. Complimented by Radelet’s forlorn vocals, ‘The Wild Unknown’ presented an ethereal soundscape punctuated by a glorious synthesizer solo to close.
Despite being said to be the darkest album of their career, ‘Ready To Live A Lie’, the fifth album from Swedish duo SALLY SHAPIRO paradoxically comes as a rather uplifting listening experience in its relatable themes. The marvellous ‘Guarding Shell’ though explores post-relationship trust issues while Johan Agebjörn drops in the same D-50 preset used on OMD’s ‘Big Town’ in the intro before hitting classic wispy Sally mode.
Following their rapturously received album ‘MAD!’ and its accompanying world tour, SPARKS got even ‘MADDER’ with their first ever EP. Throwing synths, glam and brass into the mix, ‘Porcupine’ appears to refer to a spiky woman who is “Not your cuddly kind” so “Save your Valentine”. Rather appropriately, the accompanying video shows British popster Self Esteem in bunny boiler mode running over The Mael Brothers in a excavator!
Available on the SPARKS EP ‘MADDER!’ via Transgressive
Spike is the nom de théâtre of London-based singer-songwriter Hannah McLoughlin who delivers a brand of macabre disco dealing with the undead and the inhuman. Having impressed with a deadpan electronic cover of Warren Zevon’s ‘Werewolves Of London’, the melancholic Motorik rave of ‘Tiquetonne’ delightfully interpolated ‘Con Te Partiro’ aka ‘Time To Say Goodbye’ as made famous by Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.
A member of Swedish trio CRED who issued their debut single ‘Every Loss’ in 2022, ‘I Die For This Love’ was Bjarne Johansson Sund’s first solo effort. Teaming up with James Knights on vocals for this captivating Europop tune, a chunky bassline, icy strings and orchestra stabs complimented this emotive tale of yearning. The public response was so positive that the song now finds a place on the second KNIGHT$ album out in 2026.
Available on the forthcoming KNIGHT$ album ‘Supernatural Lover’ via Specchio Uomo
Marrying the pleasure with the pain, A THOUSAND MAD THINGS is the solo synth artist William Barradale. Finding solace in untempered expression, his debut EP ‘Cry & Dance’ was one of the best releases of 2025. With his haunted demeanour and navigating young manhood as a tortured outsider, ‘Local Guys’ was embroiled in tension, showcasing his emotional range as he reflected on the violent turns of former acquaintances.
Available on the A THOUSAND MAD THINGS EP ‘Cry & Dance’ via Nettwerk
In an increasingly dystopian world where the two biggest nuclear nations are being led by unhinged egomaniacs, the Scottish-Swedish duo of Andrew Montgomery and Leo Josefsson provided their “sanity clause” as UNIFY SEPARATE confronted an existential crisis that was more than about midlife. Swathed in rhythmically swung anguish like an electro-industrial MUSE, ‘Slow Armageddon’ was their most political and timely song yet.
Icelandic for “raven film”,Patricia Wolf composed the soundtrack for ‘Hrafnamynd’, an unconventional nature documentary by director Edward Pack Davee looking back on his childhood living in Iceland. Largely created using the UDO Super 6 binaural analog-hybrid synthesizer, it enabled Wolf to sound modern while also giving the emotive fuzzy tones heard on the album opener ‘Early Memories’ to correspond with the film’s nostalgic narrative.
Available on the PATRICIA WOLF album ‘Hrafnamynd’ via Balmat
With an aim to “destroy authenticity in pop” and “embrace the superficial”, when FISCHERSPOONER were launched at a lavish art space event in London, Casey Spooner turned to his musical partner Warren Fischer and said “Warren, press play…”
Some would call it performance art while others thought the mimed escapade was an affront to real music and reacted angrily… despite much press hype, the single ‘Emerge’ stalled at No25 in 2002 and Ministry Of Sound who had signed FISCHERSPOONER internationally were left with egg on their faces. Q magazine would later place the parent album ‘#1’ in their 2006 list of “The 50 Worst Albums Ever!”
What came to be called electroclash was not considered cool by a wider public that was still drunk after the hangover that was Britpop! Like New Romantic before it, electroclash seen as self-indulgence by elitist poseurs but despite being ridiculed, longevity is nothing to be scared of. Today, the music of 1977-1983 has proved its worth as KRAFTWERK, THE HUMAN LEAGUE, NEW ORDER, DURAN DURAN and their like continue to fill arenas and festival fields around the world.
So now is the time for a re-evaluation of ‘When The 2000s Clashed’ and presented ”Machine Music For A New Millennium”; comprising of 5 themed CDs, the set has been compiled by Jonny Slut, founder of London club nite Nag Nag Nag and Mark Wood of READERS WIFES who DJed at the SOFT CELL reunion shows with superb sets that focussed on the songs, doing away with the self-important mixing and beat matching that afflicts many egocentric deckmeisters…
Just as New Romantic had a range of names which didn’t stick like Blitz Kids, peacock punks, futurists and the dreaded Cult With No Name, designations like synthcore, tech-pop and Romo were banded about before electroclash stuck. It became the all-encompassing term for this glittery yet gritty variant of electronic dance pop where klanky drum machines did battle with analog arpeggios, throbbing basslines on the oompah radar and often, snarly or spoken rather than sung vocals!
CD1 comprises of “Fundamentals” and here, superb trailblazing tracks such as ADD N TO (X)’s ‘Plug Me In’, JEANS TEAM’s ‘Keine Melodien…1, 2, 3, 4’, ZOMBIE NATION’s ‘Kernkraft 400’, ‘Hand To Phone’ by ADULT. and ‘Rippin’ Kittin’ featuring Miss Kittin take their place alongside PET SHOP BOYS’ Orange Alert Mix of ATOMIZER’s ‘Hooked On Radiation’ and LEGOWELT’s sinister ‘Disco Rout’. But it’s Peaches who steals the show with the feisty buzzy lo-fi romp of ‘F*ck The Pain Away’!
FISCHERSPOONER lead CD2’s “Essentials” summary with ‘Emerge’ and offering fine support are THE KNIFE with ‘We Share Our Mother’s Health’ and Richard Norris’ THE DROYDS with the reworded DURAN DURAN cover ‘Girls On Pills’. Although ‘Seventeen’ from LADYTRON is the undoubted classic of this set, other highlights include ‘What Was Her Name?’ from Dave Clarke featuring CHICKS ON SPEED and ‘Take A Walk’ by Andreas Bolz while DETROIT GRAND PUBAS offer the enjoyably bizarre ‘Sandwiches’!
CD3’s “Developments” documents the crossover of what many perceived as the electroclash sound into the mainstream charts with HOT CHIP, GOLDFRAPP, MGMT, LCD SOUNDSYSTEM and YEAH YEAH YEAHS as well as Annie and Róisín Murphy all present if not necessarily correct with THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS remix of ‘Slow’ chosen rather than ‘Come Into My World’, Kylie Minogue’s collaboration with FISCHERSPOONER.
Meanwhile it’s the Princess Superstar voiced take on ‘Exceeder’ as ‘Perfect’ rather than Mason’s superior original instrumental that is included. That aside, Khia’s ‘My Neck My Back’ can now be seen as a forerunner of Marie Davidson.
The “Evolutions” themed CD4 opens with the still outstanding ‘We Are Your Friends’ from JUSTICE VS SIMIAN but while also including DIGITALISM, SOULWAX, CSS and NEW YOUNG PONY CLUB, this particular part of the collection proves to be the most hit and miss of the entire box, but it’s all just a matter of taste…
CD5 looks back at the “Origins” of electroclash with the usual suspects like KRAFTWERK, SPARKS, THE NORMAL, CABARET VOLTAIRE, THE HUMAN LEAGUE, GINA X PERFORMANCE, NEW ORDER, HEAVEN 17, FAD GADGET, VISAGE and SOFT CELL all included. But while is it wonderful that a track other than ‘Homosapien’ in the brilliant ‘Telephone Operator’ is included from the Pete Shelley back catalogue alongside the Germanic quirkiness of ‘Fred Vom Jupiter’ by DIE DORAUS UND DIE MARINAS and ‘Zauberstab’ by ZaZa, this could almost be any other alternative collection of influential electro works.
Instead, this fifth disc could have gathered tracks from the period by THE HACKER, THE FAINT, FC KAHUNA, GREEN VELVET, NORTHERN LITE, SYNTAX or TECHNOVA next to DJ Hell, Felix Da Housecat, Anthony Rother, Tiga or Ferry Corsten, with the latter’s ‘Whatever!’ nonchalantly voiced by Esmee Bor Stotijn from 2006 being a slice of prime cut electroclash.
The way it was in the past 25 years ago, this boxed set shows that the back-to-basics approach of many of these tracks provided an excitement that led to an albeit short-lived reinvigoration of electronic pop by acts whose names began with an “L” like Little Boots, La Roux, Lady Gaga and Ladyhawke.
Gathering a diverse selection of artists, producers and remixers ranging from the biggest starlets and synthpop duos to cult bands and underground DJs, ‘When The 2000s Clashed: Machine Music For A New Millennium’ highlights that the passing of time has finally been kind to electroclash and in selecting from the best of its type, what is left is great electronic pop music. So when synthwave is reassessed in 10 years time and gets the boxed set treatment, will it too have evergreens that have stood the test of time? It will but it probably won’t have as many as ‘When The 2000s Clashed: Machine Music For A New Millennium’.
Not a cover of the TALK TALK song, LADYTRON signal a new phase with ‘I Believe In You’.
Founded in Liverpool, LADYTRON were among the first acts at the start of the 21st Century to readopt what had become unfashionable but also cheap synthesizers into their own DIY indie punk style of electronic music. From their debut album ‘604’ in 2001 to their most recent long form release ‘Time’s Arrow’ in 2023, their sound has evolved and has led to their sound being variously described as synthpop, electroclash, electronic shoegaze and industrial goth over the years.
It is as if LADYTRON are still being discovered and their 2005 single ‘Destroy Everything You Touch’ from their third album ‘The Witching Hour’ was included on the Grammy-nominated soundtrack of the 2023 cult black comedy thriller ‘Saltburn’ alongside hits from the likes of THE KILLERS, MGMT, BABYBIRD, GIRLS ALOUD and Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
Now slimmed down to a trio of Helen Marnie, Daniel Hunt and Mira Aroyo following the departure of co-founder member Reuben Wu, the great new first single from the reconfigured line-up has been described as “high-priestess disco”. ‘I Believe In You’ certainly possesses an infectious house groove previously not heard from LADYTRON while still recognisable as them.
Swathed in a sinister deep red, the video for ‘I Believe In You’ directed by Daniel Hunt sees a blindfolded religious cult in choreographed formation expressing the title’s conformist sentiment. They eventually ascend into ecstatic mania like ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ meeting ‘Strictly Come Dancing’! There’s even a false ending as Helen Marnie moves from a kaleidoscopic vision to being one among them…
This refreshed LADYTRON activity is a taster for Spring 2026 where it is assumed that their as-yet-untitled eighth long player will be released to coincide with a short series of live dates in Liverpool, Newcastle and Manchester.
‘I Believe In You’ is released by Nettwerk on the usual online platforms
LADYTRON 2026 live dates include: Liverpool Arts Club Theatre (19th March), Newcastle Digital (20th March), Manchester Gorilla (21st March)
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